Rediscovering my home town (Ōtautahi/Christchurch)
It’s interesting being a tourist in your own home town. So much has changed since the earthquakes of course and there is a definite sense of investment in the city and an energy of renewal and rebirth. There are also a lot more cars on the roads. For me it’s an experience of two halves. The centre of town is like visiting somewhere unfamiliar but the outer suburbs are still fundamentally the same as they were when I was growing up.
Anchoring myself always involves a trip to Sumner – a place where I lived as a teenager and as an adult and where my young children and their Dad were in our rented home when the earthquake happened.
Walking along the esplanade on a beautiful sunny day with snow on the mountains in the distance is Christchurch at its best.
We had a coffee at Dot.com Cafe and a pleasant time rummaging around in the hospice shop where Clem found several things and I found a fantastic moleskin backpack which appeared to have been hardly used.
Driving over Evans Pass we stopped to look down at Sumner and out to sea and then wound our way down into Lyttelton for lunch with friends at the Lyttelton Coffee Company. I spent several formative years living in Lyttelton while at high school and my father lived in several houses there after my parents separated. It’s always been a place that’s full of character and attracts colourful people, and that was evident in the clientele in the cafe. Excellent coffee and in my case spectacularly tasty nachos with avocado.
In the early evening we had the chance to see a good friend performing at A Rolling Stone and this was the start of a 24-hour period where I began to fall in love with the city of my birth again after 14 years living elsewhere. A Rolling Stone is an Irish bar with a great stage area which hosts a wide range of musical acts. Our friend was playing a two-hour happy hour gig as a solo performer. It was great to listen to his accomplished guitar work and singing of tasteful covers and originals. The crowd was enthusiastic.
We decided to wander further into the central city after the gig, walking through Riverside before looking up Italian restaurants. Quite by chance we came across a listing for A’mano in Lichfield Street, called them, and got a table for two, half and hour later. Walking towards the vicinity of the newly opened stadium was a trip down memory lane for us both. I’d recorded an album in a recording studio near there that no longer exists and played my own gigs at a cafe near the polytech which I chiefly remember for its amazing bagels – excellent value for its largely student clientele.
Little did we know that A’mano had recently been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand. But that was certainly borne out by our experience. We shared a delicious carpaccio entree and my seafood pasta main had a sauce that I couldn’t get enough of. This was paired with two glasses of a perky Italian red wine. We took an Uber home and counted ourselves fortunate to have got a table in the busy restaurant on a Friday.
The following day we met Clem’s sister at the bustling Lyttelton Farmer’s Market. The main market has been popular for years but the offshoot where stallholders sell jewellery, clothes and other non-food items has really developed. It was a vibrant scene with the weather playing its part to put a spring in everyone’s step. We had a return visit to the Lyttelton Coffee Company this time enjoying a very tasty vegan sandwich.
We headed into the city to check out the Arts Centre, another venue that had played a significant part in both our lives. Clem was the lunch chef at the Dux de Lux for several years, still sadly out of action in its original location, and I’d performed regularly at the Saturday market and in the Arts Centre’s north quad on Sundays in the band “Pounamu” during my university student days.
The last time I’d been near the Arts Centre was when we were retrieving graduation gowns soon after the Christchurch earthquake for the ceremony that the University was holding in a large tent on a field, as the Town Hall was out of commission. A lot of work has taken place since then and it was so heartwarming to see the Arts Centre busy again. There was a large contingent from the Chilean community celebrating their independence day with food, dancing, and music and other areas of the Arts Centre were hosting special events.
From there we ambled through the Botannic Gardens admiring the evidence of the arrival of spring there and seeing the community out in force walking, gathering, and even punting down the Avon River. Christchurch is so blessed to have a community asset like this and we look forward to visiting the museum when the Rolleston Avenue site is reopened.
